qathet School District (qSD) has celebrated the opening of two new child-care centres and the arrival of YMCA to the community.
On November 2, there was a ribbon-cutting event at the new Edgehill child-care centre. Families were able to explore the new centre and learn more about what services YMCA BC has to offer. YMCA will be operating the centres at Edgehill Elementary School and Kelly Creek Community School.
According to information from the school district, last year, qSD was awarded the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund by the Government of BC to help create new licensed child-care spaces in the community.
“With this funding, the district is able to offer 56 new child-care spaces in total for children ages zero to five at our Kelly Creek Community School and Edgehill Elementary locations,” according to a statement from the school district. “The construction of the facilities has been underway for some time and in the summer, the qathet school board finalized its partnership with YMCA BC to be the independent child-care operator at both locations.”
According to Cathy Poole, vice-president, children and youth services with YMCA BC, 16 staff have been hired to carry out the child-care programs. Poole said the employees who are working with children have their full early childhood education (ECE) certification, with infant and toddler certification.
Heidi Worthington, president and chief executive officer of YMCA BC, said the YMCA builds on the ECE certification and trains them in the YMCA’s play to learn curriculum.
“It’s play-based, but it’s all about getting the children ready for school,” added Worthington. “There’s key social skills, learning skills and physical skills that the ECEs help the children learn. So, it’s not just child-minding and keeping them happy during the day. It’s actually skill building.”
Having the child-care centre in close proximity to elementary schools is beneficial, said Poole.
“It aligns nicely with the early learning framework,” added Poole. “We would love to partner with the schools to figure out how we can all work together to help transition the children once they age up to kindergarten.”
Worthington said the YMCA has been passionate about supporting children and their families.
“We’re really thrilled to have the support of the province of BC to make this affordable and accessible to families, particularly for high-quality child care,” said Worthington. “There’s a lot of demand. It’s an important part of what we do.”
Poole said one feature of the YMCA program that is impactful is the readiness the children have for kindergarten.
“The curriculum really does help the children get ready to make the transition into elementary school,” added Poole.
Raun Rainbow, principal of early learning, child care and school nutrition, said the opening of the Edgehill centre will be on November 12 and Kelly Creek’s is anticipated by the end of November.
“The impact is that Edgehill and Kelly Creek will concretely be seen as a learning destination for children from birth to grade seven,” said Rainbow. “Of course, there will be some logistic pieces to sort, but the value of laughter and joy that the zero-to-five-year-olds will bring to the space far outweighs any logistic hiccups.”
Rainbow said child care continues to be a priority for families in qathet region and the need is apparent. He added that in surveys taken, the number one response from families is there is still a need for affordable child care.
Having these facilities close to schools has many benefits, added Rainbow.
“Children attending the daycare get the chance to feel comfortable and develop familiarity with the space long before they start their kindergarten journey,” said Rainbow. “Children in both the daycares and the schools can easily foster relationships and ideally build a community where everyone feels like they belong.”
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